Vice President European Direct Lending Quantitative Developer

Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.

Job Description

Ares Credit Group has a global reach with dedicated regional funds specialising in liquid and illiquid credit strategies, primarily investing in North America and Europe. Corporate and alternative credit are their primary areas of focus, however, Ares's credit business covers Direct Lending, Liquid Credit (Syndicated Loans, High-Yield Bonds, Multi-Asset Credit), Alternative Credit, Opportunistic Credit and APAC Credit.

For this hire, Ares are looking for someone to join their European Direct Lending business. Ares’ European Direct Lending strategy comprises approximately 95 investment professionals across London, Paris, Frankfurt, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Madrid and Milan, as of June ‘25, and manages over $80bn in assets. Since its inception, the European Direct Lending business has completed over 420 investments totalling over €77bn. The European Direct Lending team seeks to self-originate flexible financing solutions for high-quality, market-leading European companies in defensive industries with EBITDA in excess of €10mn. The strategy targets senior-secured weighting and focuses on capital preservation, a sole or lead lender position, and low volatility. The team successfully raised the latest vintage, ACE VI, at €17bn which closed in Dec ‘24, surpassing their original target of €15bn.

Where has the opportunity emerged?

Ares European Direct Lending is part of the wider Ares Management global alternative asset platform that differs from other financial services institutions, because we are fundamental cashflow investors, where we underwrite, hold, and manage assets to maturity, rather than relying on short-term market positioning in more liquid credit markets. This creates deep, long-duration data dependencies and fund management complexity that requires technical enablement at the source.

The pace and volume of deal flow alongside increasing emphasis on portfolio analytics and proactive monitoring demands tactical, localised solutions that can be developed and iterated more quickly than enterprise roadmaps allow.

This Quantitative Developer position represents a new functional capability within Ares European Direct Lending that bridges the gap between traditional enterprise IT and the investment front line.

What are we looking for?

We are seeking a highly motivated and versatile Quantitative Developer to join our Front Office teams to primarily support Fund Management activities. The successful candidate will act as a critical link between Investment Professionals and Technology, focusing on developing tactical, local solutions that enhance operational efficiency and investment decision making, while ensuring seamless integration with our core strategic systems.

This role is ideal for a candidate with a strong technical background who has, or aspires to have, a deep understanding of corporate finance concepts within Direct Lending markets.

What will you be doing?

• Business Analysis: Collaborate directly with Investment Professionals to gather requirements, translate business needs into technical specifications.
• Solution Development: Convert business use cases to design, develop, test, and deploy highly functional, secure, and user-friendly local applications and tools that solve immediate Front Office business challenges.
• System Integration: Create and maintain robust interfaces and connectors to strategic enterprise systems, ensuring data integrity and reliable transfer.
• Data Management: Facilitate data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) from various sources, including interfacing with our Azure-hosted Data Lake, to support local analytics and reporting (Databricks application experience desirable).
• Fund Modelling & Optimisation: Build and enhance dynamic fund-level financial models to support capital allocation, return optimisation, and liquidity management.

Technical Skills & Experience:

Tactical System Solutions:

Candidates are well positioned if they demonstrate specific, hands-on experience with the following application types and systems, adopting an understanding of the full software development lifecycle (including information security and model risk controls):

• Python coding experience is essential (especially libraries for data manipulation like Pandas/NumPy, and web frameworks like Flask/Django for internal tools).
• Databricks/Snowflake experience in a data engineering context to support both traditional database manipulation and large-scale data management.
• Microsoft Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate) for low-code/no-code solutions.
• VBA for advanced Excel integration and automation (where appropriate and contained).
• SQL/Database Technologies (e.g., MS SQL Server) for data storage and manipulation.

Strategic System Interfaces:

• CRM Systems: Experience connecting with or integrating data from platforms like DealCloud and Salesforce.
• Cloud Data Environments: Working with Azure-hosted Data Lake connections, including familiarity with Azure services and data extraction methodologies.
• Proprietary/In-House Systems: Ability to understand and interface with custom-built applications, often involving proprietary APIs or direct database access.
• Investment/Accounting Systems: Exposure to and understanding of data structures for core investment platforms such as Allvue (Order Management Systems), Geneva (Fund Accounting), and WSO (Wall Street Office - Loan Accounting).

Required Professional & Domain Grounding:

• Financially Problem-Solver: Applies strong corporate finance, private credit, and private equity acumen covering modelling, structuring, and valuation to design solutions that drive measurable business outcomes.
• Collaborative Integrator: Helps build alignment across Investment Professionals, business sponsors, and technology teams to ensure data driven decisions that advance enterprise goals.
• Outcome-Oriented Influencing: Thrives in ambiguity, mobilising teams effectively and focusing on delivery, efficiency, and value creation.
• Clear Communicator & Culture Carrier: Translates complex technical and financial concepts for diverse stakeholders while demonstrating entrepreneurial curiosity, accountability, and innovation.

Required Qualifications:

• Advanced degree from a leading institution or equivalent experience is preferred, e.g., Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Finance, or a related quantitative field.
• Hands-on Practical Experience, e.g., 5-7 years of professional experience in an Technology Developer, Financial Analyst, or similar technical role within the Financial Services industry (preferably Investment Management, Private Credit, or Private Equity).

Reporting Relationships

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.